Jiri Fischer arrived in Herning, Denmark, a little ahead of his team. He’s the general manager of the Czech Republic and wanted to get a live viewing of potential opponents in the World Championship quarterfinals. He watched Canada play Finland while sitting next to Team USA coach and Detroit Red Wings colleague Jeff Blashill. Later, he watched Blashill’s American team suffer its first loss of the tournament to the Finns.

On Wednesday morning, Fischer toured the locker room area in Herning, where his Czech team would be moving when it made the transition from Copenhagen for Thursday’s quarterfinal against Team USA. He took some video of the setup to send to the equipment manager to help make the preparation go as smoothly as possible.

He also ran into Blashill again, this time with the coach getting his team ready to take on the Czechs. He noticed Red Wings Dylan Larkin and Nick Jensen playing two-touch soccer nearby, getting warmed up. It was all a reminder of...